Hydrocarbon Engineering: The accident that revolutionised (SAF) brewing

Date: 5 August 2026

This week Khaled, Ramon and Miguel of Hydrocarbon Engineering join Oscar on The SAF Podcast to tell the story behind their accidental discovery: a reactor built to  produce bio-oil that, instead, yielded a diesel-like hydrocarbon in a single step. 

Years of reverse engineering later, the Valencia-based team has turned that anomaly into a feedstock-agnostic, single-stage hydrothermal process for producing SAF, renewable diesel and other hydrocarbons — one that removes the need for a separate hydrogen source entirely. 

They discuss the ambiguity of self-assessed TRLs, early interest from British Airways/Iberia, a build-and-license commercialisation strategy, and their target of bringing SAF production costs down to around $1,500 per tonne, against today’s $6,000–$9,000 range, as they push from TRL 6 towards a first commercial plant at a biomethane site.

Check it out here or on any of your usual podcast platforms.